Francine Breckenridge of Strasburger & Price LLP said enforcing nondisclosure and noncompete agreements has costs and benefits to consider.

As tech companies and those in other industries seeking skilled employees are increasingly challenged to attract and retain talent, employers with highly confidential and proprietary information are concerned about what some believe has become a migrating workforce.

Losing a valuable employee can be exacerbated when that person goes to a competitor armed with knowledge about one’s operations.

The best way for companies seeking to protect sensitive information is to have agreements and policies in place, such as covenants not to compete and confidentiality agreements, and keep them up to date, said Nancy Ebe, managing partner at Ebe & Associates PC, which represents businesses in employment and human resources law.

It’s a reality technology executives such as Lance Obermeyer — chief technology officer at Austin-based Digby, a mobile commerce software developer whose clients include more than 50 top retailers — is aware of.

“Most Austin companies have difficulty hiring tech talent at the individual contributor and manager-director level,” Obermeyer said. “Confidentiality agreements are a matter of course at all levels.”

But at the same time, he said noncompete agreements at those corporate levels are rare.

The reason may be that Texas courts traditionally did not like to enforce noncompete agreements or clauses, said Francine Breckenridge, partner at the law firm Strasburger & Price LLP. Nevertheless, since 2006, a series of cases have made them easier to enforce, she said.

One such case was Marsh USA Inc. versus Rex Cook, in which the Texas Supreme Court decided that stock options were a valid consideration. Consideration is required to enforce a noncompete agreement, and it must be reasonably related to the company’s interest to protect its goodwill, Breckenridge said.